It's got a quote from Salazar saying he fully expects Mo to win double gold in Rio as Salazar said, â€œHeâ€™s as good as heâ€™s ever been.â€

But for this weekend, the excuses are already being made:

The Standard wrote:But a bout of sickness is believed to have pegged back his preparations for Cardiff, which have long been earmarked by coach Alberto Salazar as a more apt preparation for Rio than 3,000 metres at the World Indoors.Even without the slight illness setback, victory had always looked unlikely for the Londoner in a world-class field of road runners from Kenya alone.

I assume there is a press conference or something. I'd like to see some more detials with actual quotes from Farah but this is a smart move. Now any medal will be viewed as 'a win'.

In Cardiff

RE: Farah's handlers lowering hopes for W Half - "a bout of sickness is believed to have pegged back his preparations&qu3/24/2016 8:12AM - in reply to early grey drinker

I'd be more concerned with the weather. The forecast for Saturday isn't great and the winds have been very strong the last few days (especially today). Saturday has a wind warning with gusts up to 65 mpw (frequent gusts of 45 mph). The good news is that winds out of the south ( as forecasted) means tailwind from km 7-17.5. But last 3.5 km into the wind.

The Scotregistered

RE: Farah's handlers lowering hopes for W Half - "a bout of sickness is believed to have pegged back his preparations&qu3/24/2016 8:27AM - in reply to early grey drinker

That quote indicates he is temporarily off the sauce, so they need an excuse to distract people from critically analyzing what the problem is when Mo does not win the race. Kamworor will win. Salazar is confident Mo will win double gold in Rio after getting back on the dope. I would be too.

Mo' Testing

RE: Farah's handlers lowering hopes for W Half - "a bout of sickness is believed to have pegged back his preparations&qu3/24/2016 9:32AM - in reply to Thedirty

For top level athletes with the best nutrition and medical resources guys like Farah and Rupp seem to be sick 10+ times per year which seems ridiculous compared to your average joe who probably gets a cold an average of once per year. The same with food poisoning; these guys seem to get food poisoning on an almost regular basis which is shocking for athletes who regulate what they eat as much as they do.

I think it's safe to say in the Salazar camp, any announcement of "illness" or "food poisoning" or "allergies" is simply a mechanism to downplay expectations.